New Arduinos Announced!

[madsci1016]

The New arduinos (v1.0) have been announced.

http://arduino.cc/blog/2010/09/24/dinner-is-ready/



It's called Uno and they are getting rid of the FTDI chip and replacing it with a USB enabled AVR, so now it will be seen as an Arduino instead of a com port.

Mega version will be upgraded with a Mega 2560

EDIT:

More pictures here: http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/25/arduino-uno-and-arduino-mega-2560-get-friendly-new-usb-plugs-ne/



AND video:

Arduino UNO Atmega 328 at 360 degrees view
Arduino MEGA Atmega 2560 at 360 degrees view

It's a shame this really isn't a performance upgrade, and they are sticking to the same form factor. Great for blinking some lights, but i'm going to go back to using my Axon for the adult stuff.. hehe.

[Admin]

I wonder if the new USB chip they are using will still work with the Arduino bootloader.

It sounds like they are doing it mostly just to make it difficult for the Arduino cloners to copy it . . .

[madsci1016]

What I understand from reading the press release, the USB enabled AVR is just going to replicate the functions of the FDTI, ie act as a USB to Uart bridge. But since Arduino now has it's own USB hardware ID, it can show up on the USB bus as an Arduino, instead of a com port. But they needed something else to be able to transmit the ID, since a FDTI has it's own, and can't be changed. The Uno will require Arduino IDE v20, which isn't out yet.

So really, besides they upgrade on the MEGA, there's nothing new here except branding. Now even the computer will know it has been blessed by having an Arduino plugged into it.

[Admin]

But since Arduino now has it's own USB hardware ID, it can show up on the USB bus as an Arduino, instead of a com port. But they needed something else to be able to transmit the ID, since a FDTI has it's own, and can't be changed.

Can you use more than one FDTI chip at a time on your PC?

The Axon uses the CP2102 . . . you have to rename the chip (a fairly easy process), but you can connect as many as you want when you do.

[madsci1016]

You can have as many FDTI connected as you want, no name change required. But it's still all the same Vendor ID. Now Arduino has there own Vendor ID, and that can't be changed in the FDTI.

[TrickyNekro]

I guess that AVR enabled USB they 're using instead of FTDI is also programmable...

Notice that 6pin ISP connector about the tiny IC near the USB port.... It doesn't have pins, but provided you
solder them there, you should be able to program it, with a standard AVR programmer....

And then mess with ID stuff etc etc etc.... (Even get a parallel processor)

[Razor Concepts]

I guess you could do some fun usb peripheral projects with this

[awally88]

From what I understand the USB Chip is there now so you can hack it to appear as a keyboard or mouse or other HID, so you can add a joystick to your Arduino and make it work correctly as a generic mouse on your PC or something like that.